I Go By Pepper
by Padawan Maxine Skywalker
Summary: Pepper Potts has been waiting her whole life to meet her soulmate. Unfortunately, she hears her words fairly often. Guess she just will have to hope that her soulmates' words are a bit more unique. Soulmate AU. Pepperony


Pepper rubbed her thigh absent-mindedly, tracing the familiar red words with a nail as she read over a list of complaints with the company's customer service. She heard her words often enough that she just hoped that her soulmates words were unique enough for them to recognize her. She took a long sip of her smoothie and sighed.

 _Honestly, some of these complaints are just ridiculous._

Pepper continued to read, become more and more frustrated with each complaint.

 _Briiiing! Briiiiing!_

The strawberry blonde raised her eyebrow in surprise toward her phone. Carefully, she picked it up.

"Hello?"

 _"_ _Hello. Is this Ms. Virginia Potts?"_

"Yes."

 _"_ _Wonderful. You are needed in Mr. Stark's office."_

"I'll be there shortly."

Pepper adjusted the neckline of her dress nervously as she stepped into the elevator.

"Mr. Stark's office, please JARVIS."

"Of course, Ms. Potts."

The elevator ride was slow, though JARVIS seemed to be feeling sympathy for her as he played some calm, soothing music. Too soon, the doors opened. Pepper let out a deep breath, and walked confidently towards the doors of Tony Stark's office, allowing the familiar clap of her heels against the metal floors calm her.

"Right through the glass doors, Ms. Potts. Sir is at his desk."

Pepper pushed open the door and saw that JARVIS had been correct, for the most part. Tony Stark was not at his desk, rather, he was sitting on top of it, sitting in his white undershirt, pants and socks. His shoes had been thrown in the corner, his button down and suit were laying on a messy pile on his chair, and his tie was hanging on his computer. He appeared to be humming something; Pepper thought it was AC DC's Back in Black, but she couldn't be sure. In his hands were a screwdriver and some advanced prototype of a Starkphone she had never seen before. He glanced up at her briefly.

"Hey there! Virginia, right?"

She sighed internally at the familiar words.

"I go by Pepper."

His head shot up.

"Pepper, huh? I've been waiting a long time to meet you." The genius muttered, as he slipped off his desk and walked toward her.

Pepper felt her brown crease in confusion. This was not the way she was expecting the meeting to go.

"Mr. Stark?"

He gave her smirk and lifted his shirt, where just above his right hip bone, her handwriting spelled out the words _I go by Pepper_ in mint-green.

"Oh." She breathed. "You're…"

"Your soulmate. Looks like."

Pepper took a deep breath and shifted her weight to ordinate herself before holding out her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Soulmate. My name is Pepper Potts. I work in Customer Services here at Stark Industries."

Tony laughed, shaking her hand.

"Tony Stark. I'm the CEO and lead scientist of SI."

They stared into each other's eyes for a minute, before Pepper abruptly let go of Tony's hand.

"A-anyway Mr. Stark, is there a reason you wanted to see me?"

"Number one, don't call me Mr. Stark. Makes me feel like my dad. Just call me Tony. Or a pet name. Just not 'Baby'. Or 'Sweetie'. I don't like those. Number two, my latest PA just quit, as you're aware. So I was reviewing all the applications for the job, and I decided that I wanted you as my new PA. Want the job?"

Pepper stared for a minute before smiling.

"Yes, I'd love to, Tony. Thank you."

"Great! Now I'm hungry. Wanna go out for lunch? I know this great little Indian place not far from here."

"Are you... asking me out?"

Tony looked up from where he was finishing tying his tie. He raised an eyebrow at her before stating rather flatly,

"Yes. I am. Are you interested?"

"Of course. I'd love to."

"Wonderful."

Tony finished redressing himself and held out his arm.

"Shall we then, Pepper?"

"Yes, we shall."

Pepper couldn't help but smile as they walked into the elevator. And why shouldn't she? She had just met her soulmate after all.


End file.
